Light 'em if ya got 'em

Hashing it out
With Michigan in the marijuana spotlight, this year’s Hash Bash brings out the stars

By Larry Gabriel
Published: April 4, 2012

Longtime organizer Adam Brooke won't be at the 41st Hash Bash this Saturday, but he will surely be in the hearts and minds of many as calls go out to end the prohibition against marijuana.

Last year Brooke apologized to the crowd for getting busted. This year he won't be addressing the crowd because he is serving a two-year sentence after pleading guilty to two charges of possessing a firearm while committing a felony, and no contest to charges of delivery and/or manufacture of marijuana and being a felon in possession of a firearm. Brooke said the guns (one of them an antique) belonged to his wife, but due to a 1980s conviction for carrying a concealed weapon it was illegal for the firearms to be in his house.

Marijuana activists consider Brooke a political prisoner targeted by police for his long-term activities in support of legalizing marijuana and his central role in organizing the Hash Bash for the past 20 years.

"The real issue to me is changing the marijuana laws, that's what the Hash Bash is about in the long run, changing the law," says Charmie Gholson, co-emcee for the event and co-founder of Michigan Mothers Against Prohibition. "The focus of this Hash Bash is unity, and it's a celebration. We have guitarist Laith Al-Saadi, who is going to play 'The Star-Spangled Banner' to kick things off, because this is our country too. We have every right to be afforded every bit of democracy that's given to anyone else. We have every right to petition to change the laws." ...................(more)

There will be a political charge amid the haze at the University of Michigan Diag Saturday, as thousands flock to Ann Arbor for the city's 41st annual Hash Bash.

Hash Bash started in 1972 to celebrate the freedom of activist and cannabis advocate John Sinclair, who had been serving a 10-year prison sentence for a bust involving two marijuana joints. Now, the state's battles over Michigan's Medical Marihuana Act and a push for full legalization have organizers harkening back to politics of the pro-weed event's early days.

Activists Charmie Gholson, founder Michigan Moms United to End the War on Drugs and editor of the American Cultivator, and Chuck Ream, president of the Arborside marijuana dispensary in Ann Arbor, will emcee Hash Bash. They got some help organizing the event from the U-M group Students for Sensible Drug Policy. .......................(more)

5. Ahhh! The late sixties in A-Squared

City Council decriminalized possession, like a $10 ticket.

Sunday afternoon concerts in the summer featuring Commander Cody and the Lost Planet Airmen ("You're gonna drive me to drinkin' if you don't stop drivin' that hot rod Lincoln.") amongst other bands of fame, and not much so. All patrolled, not by Ann Arbor's finest police force, but by Ann Arbor's finest Psychedelic Rangers, guys and gals wearing dirty jeans and the official Ranger T-shirts. Not a cop in sight. Nor were they ever needed.